Final Reflection (ENT3003 Assignment 30A)

1. What sticks out to you as the most formative experience? The experience that you'll remember years later? What was your most joyous experience? What experience are you most proud of yourself for accomplishing? The best experience I've had was surprisingly the videos that I had to record for the elevator pitches. While they were also my least favorite throughout the semester due to me being uncomfortable with recording them at the time, I noticed myself being much more comfortable with them. That is something to be joyful about and also serve as a reminder that repetition and criticism will only help you along the way.
2. Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur? Do you think you have moved closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset? I wouldn't say that I see myself as an entrepreneur just yet. However, I am much more further along than I was in the beginning of this course. I can confidently say I am closer to developing an entrepreneurial mindset.
3. What is the one recommendation you would make to the students who are going to journey down this path in the future? What would you recommend they do to perform best in this course? What would you recommend they do to foster that mindset? My recommendation to prospective students will be to just be open to getting out of your comfort zone and receiving criticism. As long as you are able to apply it to your ideas and adapt it into a better one because of it, then you are on your way to becoming an entrepreneur yourself.

Venture Concept No. 2 (ENT3003 Assignment 29A)

Opportunity:

• Who has the need? Student-athletes, mostly in the collegiate level have this need.
• What is the nature of the need? Nature is very important as student-athletes often find themselves misrepresented, or even not represented at all, and suffer legally and financially because of it.
• What are the forces/changes in the environment creating this opportunity? The NCAA being forced to implement the Pay For Play Act to finally give student-athletes the opportunity to market themselves and reap the rewards.
• How is this market defined geographically and demographically? This market is far-reaching across the nation geographically to athletes who are in college.
• How are customers currently satisfying the need? And how loyal are they to whatever they use now? Customers are currently going through illegal measures to profit from their likeness, and are often caught and put their eligibility to play in jeopardy. They are not loyal to whatever method they currently use, as it is currently illegal and just a way to get as much as they can before getting caught.
• How big is this opportunity? This opportunity is huge and potentially very lucrative, as the NCAA generates around a billion dollars per year.
• How long will the "window of opportunity" be open? This window of opportunity will not be open for very long and will surely be filled soon after the act is passed allowing for student-athletes to publicly and officially seek out representation.

Innovation: 

My venture is an agency that is solely focused on this market of collegiate student-athletes. While being well versed in the Pay For Play Act, as well as the rules the NCAA are sure to add and enforce to accommodate it, my venture will focus on the best interests of the player. As a student-athlete in college, they need someone who is not only focused on getting them as much money as possible, but to also do it within the structure of who they're playing for so that their eligibility does not come into question. As a result, my agents will receive anywhere from 25 to 35% of the athlete's endorsement contract.

Venture Concept:

• What are the reasons to think customers would switch to this new product? How hard will it be to get them to switch? This is an agency that is directly tailored to them rather than one that is just focused on getting them paid by any means necessary. If they value their eligibility and the legality of their deals, it should be a seamless switch.
• Who are the competitors? What are their possible weaknesses or vulnerabilities? The competitors are the agencies who represent more than just those in this new structure at the collegiate level. As a result of this, they may have a hard time knowing the boundaries of what they're able to do for their representative exactly so that it is also in their best interest as far as being available to play.
• What role does packaging, your price points, distribution, customer support, the customer experience or the business location play (if any) in defining your business concept? The concept of my business is to focus on the customer as a whole, not just the finances they can bring in regardless of if it puts them in jeopardy of playing or whatever. With that being said, customer support plays a vital role in the success of my agency and what makes us stand out.
• How would you organize a "business" to support the ongoing production of your new product, service, or process? How many employees? What roles are in the venture? My agency will run the same as any other agency, but the focus will only be on college athletes. We will start off with a handful of quality agents, each handling certain regions, and taking on multiple roles. We will surely expand, as we see fit, to accommodate where there will be more help needed. 

3 Minor Elements:

1. Unfair Advantage? My secret sauce is my social capital. With my network built through the military and beyond, I am able to reach and relate to any type of customer there is.
2. What's next for the venture? The next product I want to develop is an app that will be easily accessible by the customer. This will give them a tool to track the progress of their marketability and give them further reassurance as to how much they're worth and what they're making.
3. What's next for me? As far as my business, I would like for my agency to at least have served as the model for how agencies within the NCAA should operate, if not also be the leading agency in collegiate sports. As an entrepreneur, however, I envision this opportunity only growing my network even further, creating even more opportunities to break into.

Feedback:

• Look into how and what other agencies are doing.
• Figure out who my target audience is directly and how to reach them.
• How will I cater to the athletes more specifically, through face to face, social media, partner with NCAA, etc.?

How I Will Adapt:

• I will certainly study how other agencies have performed and focus on emphasizing their positives while also doing something different to offset their weaknesses and incorporate all of that into my agency.
• My target audience is student-athletes who are in college, which hasn't changed but I will have to be more clear about that since it may still be illegal to target high school athletes at this point in time.
• I will cater to the athletes in any and every way that I can to help build that personal relationship with them. Face to face is always good as it is getting as personal as you can get, but trying to get too personal can be a bit creepy. Social media is a great way to stay in touch and check in but too much of that and not much else just doesn't make the relationship as personable. Partnering with the NCAA can give the players a level of safety that it is a legit business tailored for them, but being involved too much with the NCAA can also give others caution and make them feel like we're just another puppet of the NCAA. The key is to incorporate a good balance of all of these to give the customer a good feeling of how we're able to communicate in multiple facets. One way that we will cater to them specifically will be through the use of our app that will let them know what they're worth.